Alone I am a small man. I want to make a big difference but I alone can not. With our Team C4C "cycle4cures" WE are a small team.....but we make a VERY BIG difference.
Today marked year 10 of Smilow Ride Closer to Free. For 10 years "my families" and I have been cycling, volunteering and raising funds for the event. I say "my families" because I have my immediate blood relatives, my lifetime family friends and then the "Closer to Free" family.
10 and a half years ago I came upon a mass email from the sound cyclist. The email made mention of a series of training rides that would lead toward a fund raising cycling event. They training rides were in need of avid cyclists and or ride leaders.
In my younger years I had cycled a lot. I had no issues with distance nor stamina. I had done many long distance cycling events for charities. In this time of my life I had already lost family members to Cancer. I had already lost family friends, Aunts, Uncles to the horrible desease. At the same time I was blessed to have family members who had survived due to finding out early, due to surgical procedures, due to radiation and due to chemo therapies.
I am a small man compared to the extent of this big disease. As much as I know about it...I know nothing. Im a small man...how can I help?....I alone can not.
I want to help, I want to make a difference, I alone can not. As I started signing up for events, I found that alone the fees and the fundraising requirements added up to much more than a simple mans budget can afford. I want to make a difference but I alone can not. My immediate family noticed what I was doing and jumped on board. My family knew how important it was for all of us. We all lost the same family members and we all celebrated the survivors. (Unfortunately the celebration of survivors ia not as celebratory as it should be but that is an entirely separate conversation). My family jumped right in and assured that my fundraising minimums were met, and that I had proper support through out the cycling event.
10 and a half years ago I rode my bike onto the NewHaven green to meet up with about 20 people who at that moment had no idea that they were about change my life forever and that several of them were about to become family.
Through out the years of riding CTF I have met thousands of cyclists. As a cyclists and as a loud obnoxious singing ride marshal either yelling "Car Back!!!!" Or singing "wheels on my bike go round and round", I managed to get the attention and obtain the friendship of many.
Through out the years the ride has grown in distance and in number of riders. Through out the years we have met, we have trained, we have saluted, we have mourned, we have become closer to one.
I am a small man, I alone can not make a difference, but I found that several people at a time My CTF family had grown...Our CTF family has grown. There are dozens of us that have grown closer to each other over the years. This started out as an event to raise funds for Cancer research and development. Raising Funds it has.
This one event has brought so many of us together. We cycle together through out the year. We cycle for this event and for others. We were all brought together through this event to save lives and that we have. Through out these last 10 years so many things have changed. The training ride formats have changed, the event size, location and format have changed. The only thing that remained the same was the fact that we all understand the importance of raising the funds, we all understand the importance of the research and clinical studies and we all understand that alone we are small and we individually can not do it alone. Together we motivate each other, we have supported each other, cried together, laughed together, rode together, prayed together, bourbon saluted together and most of all lived together, survived together. In the past 10 years I knew how small I was and how I alone couldn't make a big difference. Today I realize how big we are as a little team and how much of a big difference we have made over the years. I thank all of our supporters, our reststop vrew and every single teammate.
This year and the whole social distancing made it tough to get together, yet as a dedicated team we found ways to keep up the great work that we started as a family years ago and ride separate yet together in spirit. C4C cycle 4 cures. Cycling to make a difference. Today....10 years of riding toward making the future CLOSERTOFREE .
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